The Gate of Departure Wins Two Awards at the Egyptian National Film Festival

The Gate of Departure Wins Two Awards at the Egyptian National Film Festival

With the conclusion of the 20th Egyptian National Film Festival, Director Karim Hanafy's film The Gate of Departure won the Jury Award and the Second Production Award for Khaial Art Production, marking the film's 13th award throughout its film festival tour.

One of the most important local film festivals, the Egyptian National Film Festival is organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture through its Cultural Development Fund. The festival is held annually and includes two competitions; one of which is dedicated to long feature films, while the other focuses on documentaries as well as short and animation films. The festival aims to push forth the Egyptian film development process as part of the comprehensive cultural and social development process through promoting quality production efforts, encouraging talents in the film industry and arousing interest in Egyptian cinema in the country and abroad.

In 2015, the film was selected as the Best Egyptian Film by the Egyptian Film Critics Association (EFCA) and it earned 4 awards, along with a Certificate of Appreciation at the Egyptian Catholic Center Cinema Festival; the Special Jury Award, Best Cinematography (Zaki Aref), Best Music (Rageh Daoud), jointly with the film Out of the Ordinary, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Salwa Khattab), together with Naglaa Badr for her role in Out of the Ordinary.

The Gate of Departure also won six awards at the 42nd Egyptian Cinema Film Association Festival 2016, as it received six awards; Best Film, Best Director (Karim Hanafy), Best Cinematography (Zaki Aref), Best Music (Rageh Daoud), Best Sound (Alaa El Kashef) and Best Poster Design (Theodore Amin).The Gate of Departure had its first award at Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) 2014 where it landed as the only Egyptian official selection and won the Silver Pyramid Award for Best Artistic Contribution.

Written and directed by Karim Hanafy, The Gate of Departure stars Salwa Khattab, Ahmed Magdy, Amaal Abdel Hady and Shams Labib. The film is produced by Khaial Art Production with support from Egypt's Ministry of Culture.

With MAD Solutions on board as the film's distributor in the Arab world through its distribution arm MAD Distribution, the company has released the film in Egyptian cinemas across Cairo for two weeks.

"You, who have always been here, you will be everywhere." The Gate of Departure is a story of a prophecy that has always haunted a son growing to manhood in his mother's desolated home. The son is unable to begin his journey beyond the boundaries of these walls repressed by feelings of guilt towards his mother, who chooses to imprison herself for the rest of her life, guarding her only son as she helplessly witnesses her beauty slipping away day by day. The sorrowful mother refuses to let go of the gift that life has granted her. Only a whirlwind of painful dreams that pave the way for her son's departure teaches her to accept her eternal solitude, thus opening the door for him to begin his long journey to himself.